Caretaker Farm, Week 1

we just finished our first week as apprentices at Caretaker Farm, and I'm working hard to keep up my goal of writing a blog each week. So here's a bit of an intro to the farm. Caretaker Farm (caretakerfarm.org) was started by Sam and Elizabeth Smith, and Don and Bridget took over 3 years ago. All the food is distributed through a CSA, where members come to pick up a share of food once a week from June until the root veggies run out (around February). Each adult member of the farm is also required to volunteer on the farm. Today we had our first volunteer day, an event called "Rock the Farm". Volunteers (especially families with little kids) came out and helped us pick big rocks out of the fields and load them into buckets and then into the tractor. We also put two new sets of discs on the disc harrow (it's in the picture on the left). You pull this through the fields behind a tractor to turn the soil over before you plant.

This week, we learned how to do animal chores (feed and water pigs, cows and chickens). Here's a picture of the cows on the pasture. The white ones are Lukey, Lucy and Lina, and the brown one is Chloe. All of them except Lina are pregnant and will calve between May and July. and then we'll start to milk Chloe after that.

As apprentices, we live in cabins on the farm. Katie and I live in the cabin on the right, and Geoff and Melissa live in the cabin on the left. It makes for the best commute ever...10 minute walk through the fields, where you can hear the frogs and see the stars at night.

More later! I'm off to Boston to rescue my car.